


to a bright future, may it be sweet

by AstronautSquid



Category: Black Sails
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, So Incredibly Fluffy, Valentine's Day Fluff, so much chocolate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 16:16:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13685241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstronautSquid/pseuds/AstronautSquid
Summary: Five times Thomas gives James chocolate and one time James gives him chocolate.





	to a bright future, may it be sweet

**Author's Note:**

> Taking big liberties with the state of chocolate manufacture, which wasn't nearly as advanced as I make it look here, but eh. Chocolate houses as political hotbeds were a thing though!
> 
> Also I'm cheating just a bit on the 5+1, I'm sure you'll notice when it happens, but I liked it too much to fix the scene, SO. That's that. I wrote this one v spur-of-the-moment.

 I

 

“It's even near St James's Square,” Thomas pointed out and watched James, who in turn watched the frothy drink in front of him. “That's practically begging for a man of your name to visit. I can't believe you haven't been to a chocolate house before.”

“It _is_ rather above my allowance,” James said drily.

“But you have drunk chocolate, certainly?”

He was met by silence as James studiously raised the cup to sniff at the spiced drink. Thomas wanted to exclaim, scandalised, and then he wanted to make his apologies for making presumptions, for inadvertently slighting his liaison's pride, for not having been more tactful. What he did in the end was raise his own cup.

“To a bright future!” he proclaimed. “May it be sweet!”

James repeated the gesture with amusement.

“To a bright future,” he said, and Thomas thought the sweetness of his wide-eyed reaction to the first sip was enough to cover the second part.

“Charles II tried to ban chocolate houses once,” Thomas said.

“Whyever would he do that?” James said, watching Thomas lick a speck of foam off his upper lip with transfixed eyes.

“Called them hotbeds of sedition.” Thomas grinned.

“I can well believe that,” James said and cast a wry look across the room, where two bewigged men were nose to nose across their elegantly set table, looking to come to blows any moment. “Men here certainly do love a spirited argument, it seems.”

That slow, dark smile spread honey-slow across James' lips. Dear lord, if the man was looking _not_ to flirt with Thomas, he was making a bad job of it.

One day Thomas was going to have to kiss him.

 

II

 

When James woke in the morning, Thomas was still beside him. He lay silent and awed, and felt himself going hot all over. When those blue, morning-hazy eyes cracked open, James knew not whether to rejoice in their brightness or to mourn the beatific calm of his sleeping lover.

“Good morning,” Thomas mumbled and leaned to kiss James, slack-mouthed and sweet. “What will you have for breakfast?”

Thomas blinked in confusion when James had to roll onto his back at that, guffawing.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“Not at all,” James said.

How could he explain it, that Thomas Hamilton had upended his entire world, that he had single-handedly taken James and rattled him until everything inside had been shaken out of place and settled again where it would, and that this impossible man's first question after making love was—breakfast. As if it were an entirely ordinary thing, as if now that he had James, he was determined to weave him into his daily life as though he belonged there, easy as breathing.

How could James say any of this?

“I'd be happy to partake in whatever you usually have,” he said instead.

And Thomas bounded out of bed like a young hound off to fetch his master's slippers, barely remembering to slip on a gown—James' appreciative hum might have alerted him to his nakedness—and had soon sent for a tray of food and hot chocolate.

“Every morning?” James asked when Thomas tilted his own cup against James' lips. It was silly, but James still felt a flush of heat at the thought that Thomas' mouth had rested against the porcelain, right _here._

“I like to begin the day with something sweet,” Thomas said, eyes twinkling with mischief. “Though it seems that today I am twice blessed in that regard.”

And James couldn't find it in himself to roll his eyes or huff or respond in any way that wasn't setting aside the dainty porcelain and kissing Thomas silly.

 

III

 

“That,” James proclaimed, panting, “was a _terrible_ idea.”

“It was worth trying.”

“It was a very unworthy way of appreciating both chocolate and fucking. And I did tell you that, but—“

“Look, there was a very real chance that you might have enjoyed having chocolate licked off your—“

“It was a sticky _mess,_ Thomas.”

“Mh, but it always is. And what's better, I never knew that sweet and salty would mix so well.”

“You are impossible and I refuse to speak another word to you.”

“That's just fine, because look here, your mouth will be too busy...”

“...”

“So?”

“How are you even balancing that praline?”

“I have very steady hips, Miranda will tell you—“

“If I didn't love you so much I would leave this room right this instant. Maybe leave the country. I should go to the Bahamas and never come back.”

“Remember to bring me some chocolate, when you do. I hear that in the Americas south of our colonies they drink it so spicy it burns your tongue.”

“I have yet to encounter the thing that burns your tongue.”

“Ah, better come over here and make sure!”

 

IV

 

“I do agree with you that the recent change in strategy to galvanize the Spanish—oh, I will talk to you later then, lieutenant—“

“What's all this?” James asked, glancing over his shoulder at the admiral from whose company he was being dragged. “I never knew you to have fits of jealousy or to disapprove of me bringing our plan to my higher-ups.”

“Oh, I have nothing whatsoever against Admiral Barnett,” Thomas assured James without slowing down as he whisked him out of the crowded hall. “Wonderful man, I'm sure.”

“Then when is _this_ wonderful man going to tell me why you're dragging me around by the arm like a ragdoll?”

Thomas merely smiled at him, lightning-quick and as bright, and tugged James out into the dark garden. Another two minutes of brisk walking saw them in an ivy-shrouded alcove, where Thomas released the arm he had appropriated so abruptly.

“Will you tell me now what this is all about?”

“Here.”

And Thomas dug into his pocket, which James noticed only now was bulging suspiciously, and procured his handkerchief, wrapped around something lumpy.

“You are patently ridiculous,” James said when Thomas lifted away the edge of the handkerchief to reveal an assortment of pralines. “You didn't seriously pilfer these from the dessert table?”

“Don't be silly,” Thomas said. “Miranda helped me. It's impressive, the sort of things a woman can spirit away in her décolletage.”

James wanted to scold, but found himself unable to say anything in the face of Thomas with cheeks stuffed hamster-like with sweets.

They sat in the dark, sharing pralines like thief's gold, and let the last chocolate melt between their mouths.

 

V

 

Thomas knew himself a spoilt noble, had been told so in as many words and more by James. Still, he liked to think that hegave his servants no more trouble than was customary, that he tried not to wrinkle his clothes, to make reasonable demands for dishes. These were, sometimes, put in jeopardy by James'... well, his entire existence, and how tempting it was to disregard responsible behaviour to indulge his lover.

This latest request to his valet, he mused, was somewhat extravagant, but it was a special occasion as well.

“The beard looks good on you,” Thomas said and tried not to let on how much he wanted to press James against the next best wall and rub his face all over that ridiculous, handsome beard. “I supposed a Navy man has less time to shave out and about than when working at a desk.”

“It does still require trimming,” James said and angled his head, which allowed him to both cast a haughty look and to show off his bearded jaw to its full advantage.

They kept up the meaningless banter for another few moments before Thomas dragged James through the door to his chambers and pressed against him. Neither spoke, being too busy holding and being held.

It took them a long time to disentangle themselves from the kiss that followed.

“Come,” Thomas said and pulled James by the hand. “You can't have eaten—come.”

The fruits of his scheme were now sitting on a tray on the small dressing table. James raised his brows.

“Cake?”

“An entremet,” Thomas said and something in his voice gave him away, for James raised his eyes sharply. “I sent for it when I heard you were to return today.”

“Forgive my uncouth ignorance...” James trailed off and his smile was as curious as it was wry and teasing. What a blessing and a curse to have a lover as shrewd as this!

“An entremet is a dessert between courses.”

“So where are the courses to frame this?”

Thomas exhaled, twisting one of his rings. James, as he was bound to, noticed the restless motion and enfolded Thomas' hand in his own.

“It's the same cake that I had served the night that I asked Miranda for her hand,” he said and it came out smoothly because he concentrated every last of his thoughts upon not embarrassing himself, upon cutting a good figure in front of James, upon... Oh, to be suave in the face of his unrelenting love! “And if one is to believe my wife, it's what swayed her to say yes. You may ask her, I'm sure she'll be happy to regale you with the tale.”

James silenced Thomas with a swift hand placed lightly on his chest, and turned away. Thomas felt his heart drop to his knees. James had bid him to be silent, but the turmoil inside his breast was straining to burst free, his ribs were going to shatter with it if he didn't soothe it.

But before Thomas could speak up and inquire, to apologise if necessary, James heaved a deep sigh, his shoulders relaxed, and he turned back to Thomas, eyes shining suspiciously.

“I should know better at this point than to try and make grand gestures,” he sighed, voice raspy. “Because you're a pompous fool and will always, always upstage me.”

And with that James procured a small package from his coat pocket and pressed it into Thomas' hands.

“I made sure to have the merchant confirm that they make your eyes water and your ears bleed,” James said when Thomas unwrapped the chocolates. “That's how spicy they are.”

“It's already working, I think.” Thomas laughed when James swiped moisture from Thomas' eye with a calloused, warm, beloved thumb.

They ended up picknicking right there, on the floor in front of Thomas' dressing table. They fed each other cake and chocolates and soon felt strengthened enough by their meal to undertake the journey to Thomas' bed.

 

\+ I

 

James had heard it said that no sense was more closely bound to memory than smell. And he could see it in Thomas' eyes, in the way his entire body followed his nose's lead and tilted towards the fragrance.

“Is that...?”

Before James could answer, Thomas had already molded himself to his husband's back, peering over his shoulder at the pot on the stove.

“Since it's getting colder, I thought I'd find something to warm us up,” James said and bumped his temple against Thomas'. His hair was growing out, so the touch was soft, his bristles long gone.

“I could never be cold with a handsome man to warm my bed.”

James laughed and nudged Thomas' shoulder, and then he raised the spoon to let Thomas try. His eyes narrowed in amusement at the way Thomas puckered up his lips and blew on the hot chocolate and made a slurping noise to demonstrate just how hot the liquid was. Then that beloved, graying face crinkled into a blissful smile and Thomas leant his head against James', eyes closed.

“Is it sweet enough?”

Long arms wrapped around James' middle and a sticky kiss was pressed to that sensitive spot just below his jaw.

“Nothing has ever been sweeter, my love.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments are always appreciated <3
> 
> Find me on [tumblr!](http://squid-inspiration.tumblr.com/)


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